Investigation of the Impact of Natural Gas Flare on Air Quality in Warri South West, Delta State, Nigeria

We investigated the impact of gas flaring on air quality using Warri South Local Government as a case study. The pollutants investigated include PM2.5, pM10, SO2, NO2, VOCs, TSP, Temp and Humidity with the execution of the study occurring in four different flow stations with distances of 60m, 80m, 100m, and 120m from the flare stack at individual flow stations. To achieve this, the air quality was measured along the flare stations and the readings of the different parameters were recorded using Aeroqual 500 Series air quality multi-parameter gas detector. The results show that the average concentration of VOCs (0.7175), SO2 ,(0.105), NO2 (0.0718), CO (<0.001), PM2.5 (15.7), PM10 (24.625), TSP (29.3) Temp0C (36.45), Humidity % ( 63.425) at flare site along the flow stations exceeded both local and international regulatory levels. The variation in concentration of pollutants along the flare stations shows that concentrations of VOCs, SO2, PM2.5, PM10, TSP and Humidity were relatively high, even when the distance was at 120m away from the flare stack. At one of the locations where the flare was put off due to loading activities, results show values are in excess of international regulatory values. This research efforts will help to monitor and track the concentration level of pollutants in order to avert spread of diseases arising from high pollutant concentration.